This is not yet the end of the galley, but it will greatly facilitate the lives of users. Since the end of November, a new platform has made it possible to find an appointment as soon as possible to make a first request, an identity card or passport renewal.
Developed by the National Agency for Secured Documents, the rendezvouspasseport.ants.gouv.fr site sifts through all available time slots within a radius of 20, 40 or 60 km around a given point in the next three months. . Knowing that the appointment can be made in any town hall, provided it is equipped with a recording station.
The list of available appointments is then displayed and all you have to do is click on “Book” to be redirected to the town hall and finalize your registration. Something to put a smile on the face of French people who have already experienced browsing from one town hall’s website to another – when online registration is possible – for hours or even days, to finally find a place.
It must be said that the administration is overwhelmed with requests. The delays in obtaining an identity document had risen to ninety days in the spring. The public authorities had then injected ten million euros to reduce the deadlines to fifty days in October. While the target goal remains thirty days.
14 million requests in 2023
And the situation should remain tense for several more months. Because if 9 million French people had their identity papers redone in 2022, according to figures communicated at the beginning of November by the government, they will be 14 million next year.
“We are therefore proposing a new emergency plan: 20 million euros will be mobilized in 2023 (via Finance Bill) to help the municipalities cope, in particular by encouraging them to equip themselves with digital platforms for making appointments and to install new counters”, announced last month Caroline Cayeux, then Minister for Territorial Cohesion, just before he left the government.
Until the situation improves, the ANTS has launched a communication campaign and recommends that users anticipate the renewal of identity cards and passports as much as possible, by starting the process six months before the expiry date.